APC accused Governor Adeleke and the PDP of mischief in their allegation of plot to militarise Osun, ahead of March 18 elections and cautioned them to stop judging the APC by their standard.
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the governor, Ademola Adeleke and the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of needlessly overheating the state, through the copious infractions by its followers on the members of the APC, since November last year
APC accused Governor Adeleke and the PDP of mischief in their allegation of plot to militarise Osun ahead of March 18 elections and cautioned them to stop judging the APC by their standard.
It would be recalled that the Osun State chapter of the PDP, had in a statement signed by the caretaker committee chairman of the party, Dr Akindele Adekunle, accused the former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and the National Secretary of the APC, Otunba Iyiola Omisore, of having perfected a plan with the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Usman Alkali Baba, to arrest some of the leading lights in their party ahead of the March 18 governorship and state assembly elections.
But the APC in a statement by its Acting Chairman in Osun State, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, in Osogbo, the Osun State capital on Friday, March 10, said that it was stranger than fiction that the PDP could descend so low to make such a sweeping, unfounded and unsubstantiated allegation against Oyetola and Omisore.
READ ALSO:
The party noted that Oyetola, Omisore and the APC in Osun are ardent believers in the rule of law and as such would follow it to the latter.
The statement read in parts: “If Adeleke and the expired state caretaker chairman of the state PDP have no skeleton in their cupboards, there would not be any reason for them to make an issue with the police wherever and whenever they choose to carry out their statutory duties of effective policing.
“It is apposite to state that Mr. Oyetola and Senator Omisore, both leaders of our party are peace-loving just like the other leaders and members of our party in Osun State in particular and the nation in general.
“It is worth recalling that for twelve years that our party, the APC, was in power in Osun State, there was no record of incidents of political killings, whereas no fewer than 30 members of our party have been sent to the great beyond by the killer squad recruited and maintained by the Governor Ademola Adeleke administration within the 100 days of his administration.
“Governor Adeleke and the leadership of his party, the PDP, cannot pretend not to know that the whole state was militarized by their heavily armed political thugs who were attacking the members of the opposition with guns, cutlasses, knives, cudgels, acid and juju during the last presidential and national assembly elections.
“The fact that there has never been a record of where and when Governor Adeleke or the PDP caretaker chairman condemned the perennial attack and killings of our members and supporters as the Chief Security Officer of the state is an unexpressed admission that the crude approach to politics has their blessing and approval.
“It is strange that the PDP and Adeleke can be complaining about the shadow of policemen if truly their administration is not operating a nest of killers as it’s the killers who are afraid of the sight of a law enforcement agent. It is not possible to beat a child and such a child is denied an opportunity to cry.
“We have it against Adeleke and his reactionary political party that they have never denied the fact that they were responsible for the criminal killings of the innocent members of our party in various towns and villages in the state.
“Let me restate here that the PDP hoodlums have been denying us a level play ground before and during the last elections because their masterminds knew quite well that we are more than them and politics is a game of numbers.
“Suffice to state that the PDP can never outshine the APC in Osun State in a fair, credible and free election”.